PRSA's Murray Skips IPR for GA in Switzerland

Thu., Nov. 21, 2013

Nearly 300 leaders of the PR industry will gather at the Yale Club in New York tonight for the annual Institute for PR dinner which will feature an address by Kate James, who is moving from the Gates Foundation to Pearson after the first of the year.

James will deliver the 52nd annual Distinguished Lecture to the IPR. Title of her speech is “The Business of Changing the World.” Pearson is the largest book publisher and largest education company in the world, according to Wikipedia.

Murray

Not present for the event will be William Murray, who got the new title of CEO of PR Society of America effective Jan. 1 at the Assembly Oct. 26 in Philadelphia.

Murray is in Basel, Switzerland, for the 14th annual symposium of the .Harbourclub., a group of European PR executives who “exchange personal experiences” involving “new and future challenges to corporate communication.”

A goal is to “professionalize and strengthen the corporate communications function.”

.Harbourclub. is a member of the Global Alliance for PR and Communications Management.

Theme of today’s meeting is “Calm in the storm. Communications in the spirit of the emotions.”

Murray Chaired New Awards

Murray, who is Global Alliance treasurer, chaired the working group that developed the COMM PRIX Awards program that made its debut this year.

The awards were announced Nov. 18 at the meeting of the GA in Lugano, Switzerland.

Said Murray: “The awards have attracted a wide array of entrants from across the world. COMM PRIX offers another level of credibility and recognition, rewarding those who have reached the very highest levels of professional achievement worldwide.”

Mark Schuman, GA board member and marketing communications VP at Western Connecticut Health Network, led the awards judging panel, “an elite group of international PR professionals and academics.”

The winners are from ten countries and are the “first to be recognized on a global level,” said Schumann. They will be presented with their awards in their home countries in coming weeks.

Murray’s titles with the GA are not on the PR Society website.

COMM PRIX Winners:

Academic Case Studies

Gas Natural Fenosa, “The Role of Communications in a Merger”

Crisis Communication

Livestrong Foundation, “From the Crisis Trenches: Blazing a New Trail in Communications”